On Friday at 11 a.m. in Memorial Coliseum, UK Hoops will open its season against Morehead State. The game will also open the Division I women’s college basketball season as the first regular-season game of 2010-11 season.Head coach Matthew Mitchell spoke with the media on Thursday afternoon. Here are a few highlights as the team prepares for tip-off tomorrow morning.UK turns to freshmen for early contributionsUK Hoops is coming off of a successful 2009-10 season that ended in a trip to the Elite Eight. Reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Victoria Dunlap and reigning SEC Freshman of the Year A’dia Mathies return, but UK’s six-member freshman class will need to play a major role for last year’s success to be duplicated.”(The freshman) are very important,” Mitchell said. “They outnumber every other class of active players three to one; there are six of them and two in the rest of the classes. I would anticipate all of them having a chance to play tomorrow.”Two freshmen, guard Kastine Evans and center Samantha Drake, played key roles in UK’s lone exhibition outing against Kentucky Wesleyan.  Evans was the second-leading scorer behind Dunlap with 15 points while Drake contributed with 10. Mitchell is looking for a consistent third scoring option behind Dunlap and Mathies, and that could come in the form of a freshman-wide effort. “I think (the exhibition) is possibly how this team may be, where you have Dunlap and Mathies as go-to players, but what excited me is to know who else is going to step up and it may be Kastine one day or it may be Keyla (Snowden) one day,” Mitchell said.Set the alarm clocks earlyThe 11 a.m. tipoff will be the earliest start time of the season for UK Hoops, which presents a unique challenge in UK’s first game.”Today is going to be a long day for us,” Mitchell said of Thursday’s preparation. “We are going to have to be mentally tough. We will come in and have our normal practice. Then, we will come in and do our game-day practice tonight because the schedule is just the way it is tomorrow morning. We have talked about it this week. We have talked about how important mental focus is going to be and preparation. I’m concerned about a number of things tomorrow and so I guess you could throw that one in there.”Mitchell also went on to say the team has prepared for the game with early morning practices on both weekdays and weekends. However, the adrenaline associated with the first game of the season should help UK wake up for the early start.”I think the excitement to get the season started will probably override everything else,” Mitchell said.Mitchell familiar with Morehead StateOpening the season against Morehead State holds special meaning for Matthew Mitchell, having spent two seasons at the school as head coach before coming to Kentucky before the 2007 season.  When Morehead State was looking for a new head coach this past off-season, Mitchell was excited to see Tom Hodges get the job.”I’ve known Coach Hodges for quite some time now and clearly I have a connection to Morehead State, so when they were looking for a coach, I was very interested in who they would hire,” Mitchell said. “Tom is a fine young man and a great head coach.”Without having played a regular season game, Hodges has already made a splash with his wardrobe. Mitchell was sure to point out that Hodges is sponsored by Loudmouth Golf, the company responsible for golfer John Daly’s, shall we say, visually intriguing clothing choices.”I am looking forward to seeing what the wardrobe selection is,” Mitchell said. “It will be interesting.”Fortunately, Mitchell assured the media he would not follow his counterpart’s lead.”I will not be dressed in Loudmoth Golf apparel, if anybody is interested in my wardrobe selection,” Mitchell said.Special guests for gameIn attendance for Friday’s game will be 2,000 sixth graders from the Fayette County Public School system. The students will get a tour of the University of Kentucky campus and a chance to see UK Hoops in action. Mitchell looks forward to the enthusiasm the group of young people will bring to the crowd, particularly in light of the early start time.”We hope the energy from those people will help us a bit,” Mitchell said.